Consumer protection refers to the laws designed to aid retail consumers of goods and services that have been improperly manufactured, delivered, performed, handled, or described. Such laws provide the retail consumer with additional protections and remedies not generally provided to merchants and others who engage in business transactions, on the premise that the consumers do not enjoy a sufficient bargaining position with respect to the businessmen with whom they deal and therefore should not be strictly limited by the legal rules that govern recovery for damages among businessmen. The overarching goal is to protect individuals and the interest of the public in general from unfair and misleading activity in business and commerce (such as false advertising and deceptive trade practices) and scams perpetrated by criminals (such as identity theft and pyramid schemes) that harm a substantial number of consumers.
Norwalk is a city in Huron County, Ohio, United States. The population was 16,238 at the 2000 census, while the 2007 population estimate puts Norwalk at 16,596. It is the county seat of Huron County. The city is the center of the Norwalk Micropolitan Statistical Area. Norwalk is located approximately 10 miles south of Lake Erie, 51 miles west/southwest of Cleveland, 59 miles southeast of Toledo, and 87 miles north of Columbus. The city is at the center of the Firelands, a subregion of the Connecticut Western Reserve. The subregion's name recalls the founding of the area as one for settlers from cities in Connecticut that were burned during the Revolutionary War. Several locations in the Firelands were named in honor of those cities, including Danbury, Greenwich, Groton, New Haven, New London, Norwalk, Norwich, and Ridgefield. Other locations were named for the settlers, including Clarksfield, Perkins, and Sherman.